This invention relates generally to archery equipment, and more particularly to a bowstring release assembly with an adjustable wrist strap.
Many accessories for archery bows are available for facilitating bow handling, stabilizing the bow during use, improving aiming accuracy, and so on. Once such accessory is in the form of a wrist strap with an attached bowstring release. Archery bowstrings of compound bows typically have pull forces on the order of about 40 to 90 pounds. The use of wrist straps has become common to accommodate these large forces which have the potential to cause possible injury to the archer's fingers. A wrist strap removes the force of the bowstring that would otherwise be present on the fingers and spreads the force over a relatively large surface area of the wrist and the back of the archer's hand while leaving at least the thumb or index finger of the hand free to activate the trigger mechanism of the bowstring release.
Since the hands and wrists of archers come in many different shapes and sizes, wrist straps are typically adjustable to accommodate as many archers as possible. Prior art solutions for adjustable wrist straps have included buckles and hook and loop fasteners. Buckles, while providing a relatively secure attachment to the wrist, are difficult to manipulate during installation on the wrist and adjustment about the wrist since only one hand is available to accomplish the task. In addition, since the wrist strap is typically installed on the right hand and wrist for a right-handed archer, for example, the left hand must be used for both installation and adjustment, contributing to additional awkwardness of the procedures. Moreover, since holes on the wrist strap are typically at discrete locations, the buckle solution is inadequate for many archers since the strap may be either too loose or too tight for comfort and/or for safety reasons. If the wrist strap is too loose, the force of the bowstring can cause the wrist strap to be pulled off of the archer's hand and cause potential damage to the archery bow and potential injury to the archer.
Although the provision of hook and loop fasteners in place of the buckle provides increased comfort, ease of attachment, and infinite adjustment of the wrist strap size over a substantial range, and can accommodate a generally wider spectrum of wrist sizes, there are significant drawbacks. For instance, the hooks of the fastener associated with one adjustable section of the wrist strap may not be in full locking engagement with the loops associated with another adjustable section of the wrist strap. This may be due to several reasons including partial straightening of the hooks from extended use, a failure to fully and properly engage the hooks and loops, the collection of interfering foreign material on the hooks and loops, and/or the placement of the hook and loop fasteners in an orientation whereby the force of the bowstring causes a peeling action to pull the hooks and loops apart. Further, for users having a rather large wrist, the engagement area of the hook and loop fastener may be reduced to the point where it is ineffective under the bowstring load.
If the wrist strap separates under load, the result can either be a misdirected shot, which in and of itself may have serious consequences, as well as possible injury to the archer since the bowstring will tend to pull the wrist strap from the wrist, causing the strap to flail about as the bowstring snaps forward. Since the archer's other hand and arm are positioned in close proximity to the path of bowstring movement, the wrist strap and/or the bowstring release may strike the archer's hand or arm under high velocity and with great force, potentially causing serious injury to the archer.